Will could not have felt more defenseless—more useless—at that moment. This demon was closing in on his brother and sister and best friends, and even with all his training, with all he had learned, he was out of options. The prophecy talked of finding strength in weakness. But what did that mean? Then he made a lightning decision.
“Guys, we’re going to spread out,” Will whispered. “We’re going to run in different directions and confuse the demon. It can’t run after all of us at the same time. Simon and Andrew, go try and wake Aunt Lucille. Cami, you take the kids and go hide over there behind the gravestones. I’m going to run out and distract him.”
“I don’t think you should, William,” Cami said.
“I’ve got to. I’m the only one who can see it. It’ll give you all a fighting chance.”
“You ARE the only one that can see me,” Asmodeus growled, whipping its tail under Will’s legs. The boy fell to the ground, his pith helmet spinning away from him. The demon then laid the heavy tail over Will’s torso, immobilizing him. “And you will be the last one to see me!”
“Not the last.” Dan Wilder, looking stunned and dusty, his glasses off-kilter, stepped between the demon and the kids. “I see you, Asmodeus.”
“Dad?” Will smiled for the first time since he got to the cemetery. “You’re a Seer?”
Dan Wilder wasted no words. He formed a triangle over his chest with his forefingers and thumbs. From that finger-triangle he projected a red-and-white ray that cut into Asmodeus’s tail.
As the creature’s tail recoiled and flopped in pain, Will scrambled free, picked up his pith helmet, and raced over to Aunt Lucille. He lightly tapped her cheeks until her eyes fluttered open. “We’ve got a little demon problem we could use your help with.”
She rolled her left shoulder back into place, wincing, and with Will’s help made it to her feet. They joined the others in the middle of the path as Dan continued to blast Asmodeus with his ray.
Aunt Lucille shook off her pain, touched her fingers and thumbs together, and joined Dan in his assault on the demon.
“I’m glad you’re back with us, dear,” she told her nephew with a hint of pride.
Will stood just behind them, helping direct his aunt Lucille’s rays to the head and chest of the demon. To the outsider it sounded as if Will were offering play-by-play of a game.
“It’s moving to the right. It just grabbed that big limb on the oak tree and is pulling its body up. It’s lifting the rooster leg, the leg with the—Run!”
Asmodeus raised its lethal talons, the ones that presumably cut open coffins and could rip through human bodies like a buzz saw. Hanging from the lowest tree limb, the demon proudly displayed the three talons at the end of its foot and that single metallic claw on the backside of its leg. Asmodeus drew up the leg and prepared to strike Dan, Lucille, and Will with a single blow.
Will’s scream to “Run!” sent the kids scattering in separate directions—all except Marin. She remained where she stood, her hands clutching the sides of her dress, her mouth open, and a look of fright mingled with determination in her eyes. The girl released a piercing scream that caused even the demon to flinch.
The moment the sustained shriek hit its ears, Asmodeus knew what it meant. All three heads of the beast stretched heavenward, searching the skies for what would inevitably follow. The Summoner had issued her call.
Aunt Lucille and Dan did not stop pounding the creature with their rays, but to Will’s astonishment, the rooster leg and claws never descended. Wrapped around the leg, he could vaguely see the glittering outlines of hands, like floating white Christmas lights. As he stared, the light sharpened. Hands of angels—strong, powerful angels—held the leg back until, all at once, they ripped it away from the demon’s body.
Asmodeus moaned and cursed in anguish, falling to the dirt as the sparkling spirits carried the leg away.
Philip and Shen righted the three-wheeled vehicle, which was still spewing smoke where it crashed. Together, they pushed it back up the bluff.
“Will, where’s the demon at?” Bart asked from the driver’s seat.
Will pointed to the ground, beneath the oak tree’s broken limb, an area lit up by Lucille’s and Dan’s rays. Bart turned the vehicle so that the funnel pointed to the spot where the ray’s light splayed and splattered.
The combination of fish incense and the relentless red and white light literally shrank Asmodeus. The shriveled demon clawed at the dirt; dropped the branch holding the amulet; and in three strangled, small voices warned, “You restrain one of us and more will rise up. We have taken Wilders before and we shall again. We already have the hearts of your selfish people. The Brethren will fall.” The three shrinking heads glared at Lucille, Dan, and Will. “It’s good that you’re afraid.” With that, a flash of lightning exploded, illuminating the cemetery path, and Asmodeus was no more.
“You did it,” Will said, laying his hands on the warm shoulders of his dad and great-aunt.
“We did it, son.” Dan threw his arms around Will and held him tightly. Down the path, in the darkness, Will saw the wispy, gray outlines of several people. Among them was Renny and an old man, thin as a pool stick. Renny waved and with the others, dissolved like smoke before his eyes. Spirits of the dead. They’re free of the demon.
“Will, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Lucille said, collecting the amulet of power from the pathway and dropping it into her pocket.
“I think I might have.”
“I saw them earlier,” Dan said quietly.
“Ya vision’s gettin’ stronger, Will,” Bartimaeus said, ambling over. “ ’Member what Gamaliel said about your vision? That you’d see spirits of the dead and angels. You’re growing into your gift. That’s good.”
“You met Gamaliel?” Dan asked. “The one who trained Jacob?”
Aunt Lucille leaned in. “There are a few things we’ve kept from you—during your absence. Are you back for good, Dan?”
“I may be.” Dan touched Lucille’s arm. “I saw my mother tonight, here at the cemetery.”
“Oh, your vision is still refined. That’s wonderful, dear. Was her spirit at peace?”
“Not her spirit. HER. She was here with Raphe…a new Raphe.”
Lucille ran her knuckles along her jawline. “It can’t be. I saw the Fomorii chase Marian down. I thought for sure she’d died in Wormwood after they killed your father.”
“She survived. She’s been over there all these years, hiding.”
Lucille blinked in confusion. “She’s been living in that evil pit? For decades? Why? I don’t believe it. Are you sure it was her?”
While Dan pondered the question, Caleb stumbled up the path with Athanasius leaning on his shoulder. “Can you all help us here? The old guy is bleeding.”
Philip, Tobias, and Lucille ran to look after the abbot, who despite a gash on the side of his head, was otherwise fine. “It’s a flesh wound,” he kept saying. “Don’t be dramatic, I’m perfectly fine.” He was more concerned with the whereabouts of Asmodeus.
Will tried to apologize to Caleb. But the boy was so spooked, he instinctively backed away from Will. “I just want to get home,” he said. “Where’s Lilith?”
“She…um…left,” Will told him.
“All right,” Caleb said, nervously checking out Leo, Marin, Cami in her helmet, and all the others. “I guess I’ll see her later, then. I musta blacked out when that old guy with the beard started yelling at me and— What happened? He was lying next to a tree when I woke up. Next thing you know, he started to get up and we saw some kind of red lights over the hill. What was going on?”
Will and his friends alternately shrugged. “It’s complicated,” Will said, looking over at the beat-up three-wheeler, smoke belching from its front.
Caleb ran a hand through his hair and nervously took in the
entire group staring at him. “I’m going to head home,” he said.
“You want company?” Andrew asked.
“No, I’m cool,” he said, backing away. Caleb ran out of the cemetery, not wanting to spend another moment with Will Wilder or any of the other strange people standing around in the dark.
“You were mighty brave tonight,” Bartimaeus whispered to Will. “Took guts to throw the amulet away. I mean, had the demon made off with it, we coulda all been killed. But it was still a pretty gutsy move.”
“I shouldn’t have taken it out in the first place. I thought with more strength I’d have control over things….”
“Well, did ya?”
“Not really. I was only thinking about the things I wanted. I wanted to make the team and once I did, I wanted to keep feeling special, and there was Lilith….” He grimaced and stared at the ground. “Then I thought I could use the power to protect other people. But to do it, I put everybody at risk and almost lost my sight…and the most important thing—you all.”
“So you learned somethin’ from your mistake. That’s what mistakes are for, Will.” Bart brushed the soil from the sleeves of his loud coat. “Keep looking beneath the surface. Most important thing is that question Gamaliel asked you. Get that right and everything else will follow: On what have you set your heart, my man? On what have you set your heart?”
Cami walked up and squeezed Will’s deflated biceps, which made him flinch. “Even without your muscles you saved us.” She smirked through the opening of the metal helmet.
“Not really,” Will said. “Had you not tipped me off to Renny being a zombie, you’d probably be digging my grave right now.”
“Teamwork,” she said, giving him a friendly shove.
“Teamwork.” And he flicked her metal helmet just like she always flicked his pith helmet. She started to remove the medieval hard hat just in time for Aunt Lucille to take it in hand.
“I’ll bring that back to Peniel now, dear,” Lucille said, passing it to Tobias. “But you know where it is if you ever need it. You did very, very well, Cami. It’s nice to find a young person who knows how to follow directions.” Lucille cut her eyes at Will and laughingly walked away.
* * *
On Saturday morning, Will rode his scooter to Burnt Offerings for his regular brunch with the gang. There were no Cassian Modo tunes blaring from the storefronts on Main Street, and Will felt that everything had returned to normal—even the Wilder home was peaceful again.
When he came down into the kitchen that morning, his mom and dad were laughing in the breakfast nook. “Where are you off to, Will?” his mom asked with a sparkle in her voice she hadn’t had in days.
“Going to meet the gang at Burnt Offerings.”
“Of course.” She got up with an empty breakfast plate and came toward him. When she placed her face right next to his, he flinched a bit—given the way she had been yelling at the entire family recently. “Have a great time.” She planted a kiss on Will’s cheek and straightened his pith helmet. “Tell the kids I said hello.”
Dan followed Deb to the kitchen sink with his own plate. “It’s good to have Mom back, isn’t it?” he whispered to Will.
Will bugged out his eyes and nodded. Then he got serious. “It’s good to have you back too, Dad.”
Dan adjusted his glasses and proceeded to the sink. Will blew past his siblings, who were fighting over a board game in the den, and headed for Main Street.
As he chained his scooter to the tree in front of the café, he watched a group of ladies passing a newspaper around their outdoor table.
“Isn’t that just awful?” a woman with sunglasses that wrapped around the sides of her head told her well-coiffed friends. “That’s the fourth child that’s gone missing in the last three weeks.” She pointed to a picture of a smiling boy of about ten on the front page.
“Were they kidnapped?” a fragile lady with a flutelike whimper of a voice asked.
“Read the paper. They weren’t kidnapped, Polly,” responded a woman whose loud, deep voice sounded just like Dan Wilder’s old lawnmower. “Says right there, ‘There were no ransom notes or any indication of kidnapping or foul play.’ They just disappeared. That’s what’s so weird. They were there one minute, gone the next.”
The woman with the wraparound specs pushed her coffee mug aside and leaned forward. “It’s not just kids. Last year, my friend Jackie—y’all remember Jackie.” There were nods around the table. “Well, Jackie’s family stuck her in that retirement resort over in Ekron. I went to visit her a couple of months ago. Vanished! She ain’t there no more.”
“People don’t just vanish,” Polly, the squeaky-voiced woman, said. “They have to go somewhere. I hope the police are working to find those poor kids. Jackie too.”
Will’s stillness and knitted brow revealed how riveted he was by their conversation. But after making eye contact with the human lawnmower, he broke away with some embarrassment and hustled into the café.
Simon was at the back table, lost in a slim green paperback written by someone named William Golding. Andrew was already halfway through his eggs. “Muffins haven’t come yet, so you’re right on time,” Simon said, laying the book down.
“Settle a bet for us,” he said, looking toward Andrew. “Are you staying on the football team?”
“Probably not. I got on by using the amulet and without it I’m not all that good.”
Simon opened his palm to Andrew. “Pay up, lummox. I told you he wouldn’t stay. I hope that means you’ll be returning to the Scouts, Will.”
Andrew slapped a dollar into Simon’s hand. “Will-man, you played strong. That last game was amazing. But I think you’re right; without the relic juice, you’re gonna get creamed.”
Max came rolling into the room with Cami running behind him. They were both distressed, Cami out of breath. “You won’t believe this, guys,” she said. “Tell them. Tell them.”
Max tilted the seat of his wheelchair forward so he could see them better. “I’ve been having this dream….”
Andrew buried his head in his hands. Simon sat back and rolled his eyes. Will felt a pinch in his gut.
“I hope I wasn’t in this one,” Will said.
“No, but my friend Zachary was.” Max spoke with effort, working to make sure every word was understood. “Zachary is in class with me. He uses a wheelchair too. A few days ago I started seeing him and other kids in my dreams. They’re laughing and eating and all of a sudden this blackness comes over them.” He used his one mobile hand to make a fluttering motion. “Little black dots come in and cover them and then the kids are gone.”
“I wasn’t one of the kids, was I?” Simon said.
“What did you see next?” Will asked.
“That was it. It was the same dream every night. Zach and other kids I can’t make out disappear and people go out looking for them. Last night, I woke up screaming,” Max said, shaking. “Cami came in and I told her about Zach and the others. Zach was so clear.”
“Then on the newsstand, just down the block, we see this.” Cami held up the front of the Perilous Times newspaper, her hand shaking. It was the ten-year-old boy the women outside were talking about. “That’s Zachary. That’s Max’s friend. He’s missing.”
* * *
Aunt Lucille stomped down the pier in front of her home. She opened the door to the boathouse and jumped into the Stella Maris, the sleek, baby-blue speedboat she used anytime she went out on the river. She checked the gauges and reached for the rope holding the boat in dock.
“I wouldn’t go over there, Lucille.”
She snapped her head to the corner of the boathouse to find a woman her age with a dog at her feet. “Marian?” It was Dan’s mother. Lucille could not believe what she was seeing. “How did you survive the Fomorii attack? I saw them chase you down.”
Marian knelt near the boat. “I promise to explain everything soon. It’s not a pretty story, Lucille. I figured you’d try to head to Wormwood after Dan told you that I had returned. But you can’t go there now.”
Lucille folded her arms defensively in front of her. “Why not?”
“Because she’s here. The Witch of Wormwood is here.”
“Where is she?”
“Right HERE.”
The golden retriever’s features turned snakelike before Lucille’s eyes, and soon its whole body became smooth and reptilian. The thing slithered onto the floor of the boat.
Lucille backed away and attempted to press her thumbs and forefingers together. But the snake, in a shot, wrapped itself around her hands—making contact impossible. When she looked up, the kind-faced woman kneeling at the prow was no more. Marian’s eyes had gone black as night, and her face was now long and hollowed out.
“You have obstructed us for the last time, Sarah Lucille.”
The woman opened her mouth and emitted a choked, guttural sound. She vomited out a steady stream of flies, maggots, and gnats. They covered Lucille’s body and dragged her flailing and screaming to the floor of the Stella Maris. The struggle lasted all of three seconds.
After a prolonged silence, Lucille Wilder’s boat cut through the waters of the Perilous River and headed downstream, a hooded figure at the wheel, a snake peering over the rail.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I have received countless letters and emails from readers of the series asking whether the relics mentioned throughout the books are real. The answer is: most of them are. Here is some background information on a few of the relics and where you can find them. This might appeal to readers, young and old, who wish to have their own adventures. Although, I will repeat what Aunt Lucille and Bartimaeus are forever telling Will: look, but don’t touch!
Will Wilder #3 Page 20